


l'insecte de l'amour

by jilliancares



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: ??? - Freeform, Getting Together, M/M, Pining, can't remember, i can barely remember what happens, i wrote this more than a month ago, love bug au, probably, shrug emoji, uuuhhh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-24
Updated: 2018-05-24
Packaged: 2019-05-13 05:13:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14742620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jilliancares/pseuds/jilliancares
Summary: Lance is bit by a Love Bug and is suddenly pining after Keith, which creates a whole new world of suffering for Keith, considering he's actually in love with the idiot.





	l'insecte de l'amour

**Author's Note:**

> why is the title in french, you ask??? because we don't need yet another love bug au named "love bug" and because french is fun
> 
> anyway i love love bug aus and it's surprising i haven't written one earlier so,,, Here This Is
> 
> EDIT: there's art!!! @dotstronaut on tumblr made a cute lil comic! i fuckin,, constantly fail at linking things so here's what you can copy and paste to see it asjlkdsf: http://dotstronaut.tumblr.com/post/181449676158/i-should-really-do-fanart-for-my-favorite-fanfics

“I don’t know what I’ve been told!” Lance sang, going in for what felt like his billionth rendition of this stupid chant. He changed up the lyrics every time, though Keith was sure he was repeating lines by now. No one had called him out for it because no one could be especially sure, having all been doing their best to tune the idiot out. “But Keith’s big mullet must have mold!”

“Are you kidding me?” Keith snapped, turning to glare at Lance and subsequently walking into a branch before him. He’d been steadily cutting the vegetation out of his way for most of the walk, but he’d forgotten to swing his sword in his irritation. 

“I’m sorry, did I offend you?” Lance said innocently, ducking under a branch in his way. He swung his bayard up to rest on his shoulder. Keith had to resist telling him to deactivate it at least, lest he accidentally shoot off his own head.

“I wash my hair!” Keith said, annoyance making itself clear in his voice. He’d had this very same argument with Lance before, in a variety of ways in a multitude of places, so he should’ve known it was pointless to argue. It was just — ugh! It wasn’t even a mullet! And it _wasn’t_ greasy, he showered every fucking day, given how often he trained. 

“Stop arguing, you two,” Shiro chimed in from up front, moving a bit stealthier through the forest. Keith suddenly winced, glancing behind himself at the path of carnage he’d left, and wondered if Shiro wasn’t karate-chopping branches out of his way for a reason.

Keith shut up, not really caring to argue anymore anyway. If he was being honest, he’d just been willing to latch onto any form of a distraction, at this point. They’d been walking through the sweltering jungle for what felt like hours now, still looking for some precious artifact that that Mala’yans wanted them to collect before they’d join the coalition.

It was pretty much bullshit, anyone wanting anything from them when Voltron was literally just trying to save their asses, but whatever. If they had to trudge through a stupid jungle to find some stupid stone to save some stupid three-foot-tall aliens, then so be it. If only the experience could be just a little bit less horrible, like if Lance were to _stop singing_.

He picked up right where he left off.

“One, two!” he chanted. No one joined in for the next numbers, so he deepened his voice and added himself, “Three, four!” 

Keith glared at him out of the corner of his eye, only to find Lance already looking at him, grinning. He’d taken his helmet off some time ago — all of them had, their hair plastered to their skin and their visors fogging up with their heated breaths — and it was tucked comfortably under his arm.

“I’m going to kick you,” Keith said lowly, low enough that Shiro wouldn’t hear him and reprimand him. Lance just raised his eyebrows.

“Why would you kick me when you could —” he broke himself off though, his eyes growing wide and his mouth flattening into a straight line. Keith froze on instinct, his blood boiling in his ears as he waited for something to happen; a Galra soldier to pop out of the bushes, a giant robeast to descend on them, _anything_.

When nothing happened and Lance just continued to stare at him like that, Keith hissed, _“What?!”_

“Shh!” Lance said immediately, before he pointed with a shaking finger. Keith turned his head, following the line from Lance’s pointer finger to the tree directly beside him. And there, maybe the size of half his face, was a gigantic bug. It was pink, funnily enough, which probably meant it was poisonous, like most colorful insects were — at least on Earth. It was crawling slowly up the tree, appearing to have not yet noticed Keith.

“I’m gonna shoot it,” Lance whispered. Keith jerked his head back towards Lance, panic exploding through him.

“Don’t!” he hissed.

“It’s the only way,” Lance said gravely. “That bug is fucking huge.”

“It’s right next to my face, Lance!” Keith said. “It could bite me!”

“It’ll be _dead_.”

“Not if you miss!”

“I won’t!” 

With that, Lance rose his bayard to eye-level and took aim. Keith squenched his eyes almost all the way shut and leaned carefully to the side, bracing himself to be hit in the face with bug, whether it be alive or splattered.

The high-pitched sound of Lance’s laser gun echoing through the air met Keith’s ears first, quickly followed by Lance’s loud _whoop_! Keith opened his eyes, only then realizing he’d managed to shut them all the way, and turned his head to look at the mass of gooey purple guts splattered on the tree.

“ _Told you_ I could do it!” Lance cheered, dancing on the spot like a fucking idiot. An adorable idiot, sure, but still an idiot.

Keith tried to keep the smile off his face, tried to continue to look unimpressed and annoyed as he stared at Lance, but he couldn’t help the way his lips twitched upward. It didn’t matter, in the end, as Lance didn’t end up looking back at him, too distracted with his victory celebration.

He was so distracted, in fact, that he failed to notice a second one of the pink bugs crawling into sight on the tree directly behind him, even when Keith hissed his name and tried to get his attention.

Keith had been right to stand still upon Lance noticing the original bug, because now the bug beside Lance didn’t appear to like his dancing. It launched itself off the tree in a terrifying show of secretly-having-wings and latched itself onto Lance’s shoulder. Lance halted, obviously feeling the bug on him now, but he just continued to stand there. There wasn’t really any protocol on bug attacks, unfortunately.

Lance looked at Keith, his eyes wide with a panic that Keith felt mirrored on his own face, when the bug leapt from his shoulder to his neck. Lance made a high pitched squealing noise and clenched his eyes shut.

“ _Keith_ ,” he squealed, so high-pitched it was almost silent. “Oh my God, help me — get it off, get it off, getitoff _getitoffgetitoff_  —”

Keith shushed him and Lance bit his lip, his face still pointed to the sky. The bug was crawling slowly across his neck. The rest of team Voltron, apparently having not noticed the commotion, had continued on through the trees without them, yet to notice their absence.

He edged his way closer to Lance, tiptoeing over branches and leaves and coming up right in front of Lance. “Stay still,” he whispered. Lance whimpered in response.

Careful, so as not to startle the bug, Keith lifted his hand towards Lance’s neck, intending to let the bug crawl onto his gloved hand and off of Lance. He had just laid his hand against Lance’s throat, able to feel his thundering heartbeat even through his glove, when the bug stopped in its slow, steady movements towards Lance’s face. It seemed to look at Keith hand, analyzing it. And then, deciding it wanted nothing to do with Keith, it dug it’s tiny pinchers into Lance’s skin. 

“Fuck!” Keith said, and he hastily flicked the bug off Lance, absent-mindedly slicing through it with his sword as it flew away. Lance was making worried noises, his fingers scrabbling against the now reddened skin, and Keith batted his hands away, tilting his chin upward and getting a better look at the bite. It looked like a mosquito bite, honestly, but they couldn’t exactly take their chances with random alien bugs. 

He let go of Lance’s chin and shoved his helmet on, activating the comms. Lance watched him, rubbing his neck. And then he stopped rubbing his neck and took a step closer.

“Shiro?” Keith said, staring at Lance worriedly as he waited for the other paladins to hear him and don their own helmets.

“ _Keith_?” Shiro finally responded, and Keith cleared his throat.

“This alien bug bit Lance, I think we should head back to the castle. It was pink, so it might be venomous — Lance, what are you doing?” Keith cut himself off as Lance continued to edge closer and closer to him. His hands were holding onto Keith’s waist now. Lance blinked.

“Um. I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head and retracting his hands, his face flushed.

“ _Keith? Lance? What’s going on?_ ”

“Just meet us back at the castle,” Keith answered. Lance, seemingly forgetting himself again, was holding onto Keith’s hips once more. And he was leaning in, his face getting closer to Keith’s, almost like he was going to —

Eyes widening, Keith activated his visor, letting the sheet of glass materialize between his face and Lance’s. It was good timing, too, as Lance’s lips pressed right against the glass before his eyes flew open in surprise. Only then did he seem to realize what he’d been doing, and he yelled and flung himself backwards, his arms coming up to hug his own chest.

“Shit!” he said. “Keith, I’m — fuck. I don’t know what I’m doing…”

“Relax, it’s the bug bite. It’s probably doing something to you,” Keith said. At the very least, it didn’t seem like it was poisonous. Keith was pretty sure that would include more purpling skin or frothing at the mouth or something. No, Lance just seemed to want to… kiss him. “Let’s get back to our lions,” Keith instructed.

Going back through the forest should’ve been easier than going in had been, considering there was a clear path from all of Keith’s hacking and slashing, except this time there was _Lance_.

Every few steps, he’d end up touching Keith in some way, grabbing for his hand or resting a hand on the small of his back or winding an arm around his shoulders. Keith would just give him a look and Lance would seem to realize what he was doing, face flaring red as he threw himself backwards with sputtered apologies. This was making their trek take even longer, considering how Lance insisted on having a breakdown every time he realized he was unconsciously feeling Keith up.

“Look, it’s fine,” Keith said, the next time Lance flung himself against a tree melodramatically, a groan gracing his lips. “It’s obviously some sort of bug thing. Just hold my hand or whatever and let’s get on with it.”  
 

For a moment, Lance looked horrified, but then his bug-ified brain took over and he was striding forward, foregoing Keith’s offered hand and wrapping an arm around his waist. The continued like that through the forest, Lance’s hand somehow hot on his side, even through his suit and Lance’s glove. Occasionally, Lance would give him a sort of affectionate squeeze, and now Keith was the one fighting off blushes. God, this was in no way helping the feelings he’d been trying to squash down ever since they’d made themselves known several months ago.

Not to mention, Lance was getting worse. He no longer seemed abashed and embarrassed about holding Keith. He lost all his reservations entirely, pressing his face into Keith’s neck and humming delightedly.

“Almost there, Lance…” Keith muttered to himself, now carrying most of Lance’s weight as he dragged them through the remainder of the jungle, the two of them finally emerging in the field they’d parked their lions in.

They were the first ones back, the other lions still situated in the clearing as well, though Keith didn’t mind getting a head start. The sooner Lance could get help, the better. Plus, he didn’t want to see the looks on everyone’s faces when they saw Lance like this.

His crush on Lance was something that was his own business and entirely a secret — so of course, everybody knew about it. Shiro had known before Keith did, it seemed like, and when Keith finally realized what it was he was feeling, all of Shiro’s knowing and sympathetic looks suddenly made sense. And no two people could know something on the castleship without Pidge figuring out about it, and so she did, using the knowledge to both torture Keith and comfort him when Lance said something particularly scathing. And Hunk ended up figuring out because he was the nosiest person on the planet, having eavesdropped on Keith when he was ranting to Pidge about a particular thing Lance had said or did or worn, and then he’d been apart of the whole mess as well. Allura knew because she was Allura, which translated to Keith having no idea how she knew, but he wasn’t surprised that she did.

The only person that didn’t know at this point was Lance, thank God. And Keith would very much prefer to keep it that way.

And so before everyone could return and give Keith a multitude of knowing and pitying looks, Keith nudged Lance towards his lion.

“C’mon,” he said. “Let’s get back to the castle and see what Coran thinks of that bite.”

“No,” Lance said, his lower lip pouting out.

“I — what?”

“I don’t want to go in my lion,” Lance said, crossing his arms stubbornly. He then realized that crossing his arms meant he couldn’t hug Keith, so he quickly dropped them and pressed back into Keith. “I want to go in _your_ lion.”

“OhmyGod _fine_ ,” Keith said, all in one breath, and then he was dragging Lance towards Red, thankful that they managed to get in the cockpit before the rest of their team showed up and introduced Keith to a new level of embarrassment. 

Deciding that one of the others could go back for Blue, Keith shook Lance off by the small cot in the rear of the cockpit and settled himself in the pilot’s seat, gearing Red up to take off.

Lance, realizing that being on the cot meant he wasn’t touching Keith, suddenly let out an annoyed sound, standing up abruptly.

“Sit down, Lance,” Keith instructed. “At least until we’re out of the atmosphere, okay?”

Lance made a “hmph!” kind of sound, but thankfully planted his ass right back on that cot, and Keith finally let Red shoot into the sky, knowing Lance wouldn’t tumble ass over head and break his neck on something. 

As soon as they were out of the atmosphere, leveling out and heading towards the castle, Lance hopped to his feet. He clambered onto Keith’s lap only moments later, obstructing his view and making him have to put Red on autopilot.

“You’re making this a whole lot more difficult for me,” Keith muttered, only partially talking about flying, and Lance just hummed into his neck. Without warning, he reached up and wrenched Keith’s helmet off his head, making him cry out in surprise. Satisfied with himself, Lance tucked his face a bit more comfortably into Keith’s neck.

It felt like much too long before they were in the hangar, but from there Keith dragged Lance quickly through the castle, not willing to let Lance cling to him and slow their pace even more. He could hear the others returning to their lions through his helmet, now dangling from his fingers, and it was with a relieved breath that he finally burst into the control room, Lance immediately wrapping his arms around his waist and propping his chin on Keith’s shoulder.

“Allura!” Keith panted, going bright red when she turned around, her eyes widening at him and Lance. “Something’s wrong with Lance! There’s was this bug, it was pink, and —”

Immediately, Allura’s mouth dropped open, her hand coming up to slap her own forehead. “I can’t believe I forgot…” she said to herself, voice low. 

Coran, standing off to the side, looked similarly guilt ridden. “It wasn’t just you who forgot, Princess…”

“You know what this is?” Keith demanded, gesturing viciously at the koala-like specimen Lance had become. Just then, because the universe hated Keith, everyone else burst into the control room, though they all immediately halted, no doubt in confusion.

“It’s a very common species,” Allura was saying, stepping closer to Keith now, her bottom lip tugged between her teeth. “They’re located on most of the planets in this sector.”

“Well? What is it?” Keith demanded. Embarrassed with everyone’s attention on him, he tried to twist out of Lance’s grip, but Lance let out a loud whine and clung tighter, pressing his face into the back of Keith’s hair.

“It’s a Love Bug,” Allura explained. “It — well, there’s different kinds, of course, and they all work in slightly different ways —”

“What did _this_ one do, Princess?” Shiro asked, and Allura blinked, as if having not realized everyone else had arrived.

“Well, it’s made Lance fall in love with Keith, of course,” she said. “I’m just not sure how it was instigated…”

“Wait, _what_?” Keith demanded, his mouth suddenly very, very dry. God, this was fucking horrible. And everyone else had edged to the front of Keith, not-so-surreptitiously wanting to get a better look at the way Lance was clinging to him, and he was suddenly awarded to the sight of five pairs of pitying looks.

“It’s only for a short time, of course,” Allura continued. “It should wear off in a matter of days, really, and then Lance’ll be back to his normal self.”

“I _am_ my normal self,” Lance butt in grumpily, apparently not dead to the world. He peered around Keith, glaring at Allura.

“He wasn’t like this the whole time,” Keith said. “At first he was fighting it.”

“Yes, that sounds about right,” Allura sighed. “We could probably get him to snap out of it for a minute or two if we really tried…”

Keith groaned, flinging his head back and letting his eyes fall shut as his let the reality of this situation wash through him. For the next few days, Lance was going to be in love with him. For the next few days, something that Keith so desperately wanted was going to be dangled in front of his face. For the next few days —

Keith’s thoughts were abruptly halted as a pair of warm lips pressed against his exposed throat, making him jerk away, his face so hot it hurt. “Lance!” he burst out, and Lance frowned at him.

“What?”

“Perhaps we should do a few experiments on him,” Allura said. This led to everyone going to the med bay, despite not everyone needing to go. Keith felt relatively betrayed by all his friends, who apparently enjoyed watching him suffer.

Once in the med bay, Coran and Allura pried Lance off of Keith with much struggle, listening to him whine and gripe about how he was _fine, guys, I just want to cuddle Keith for a bit, so what?_

Lance became less and less cooperative, too, wanting nothing to do with the blood samples and spit-swabs and bite-mark examinations. By the time Allura and Coran were done with him, he was practically vibrating in his seat. The second Allura stepped out of his way, he stood up and raced towards Keith, colliding with him almost painfully. He wrapped his arms around Keith tightly and spun in a circle, making his feet rise off the ground. Once he was set back down, he glared at Lance.

“Wipe that look off your face,” Lance snorted. “I know you love me back.”

Keith’s eyes widened as he spluttered. He looked at Allura desperately, wondering if she could read the look of, _Is this normal?!_ on his face.

“Lance, I don’t —”

“Shh!” Lance said suddenly, clamping his hand over Keith’s mouth. “You’re not supposed to know that I know. Hunk would _kill_ me.”

Horrified, Keith looked over Lance’s shoulder at Hunk, who was practically oozing guilt. Keith had never felt so betrayed in his life. And embarrassed. Pidge was glaring at Hunk, furiously whispering something at him, and Hunk seemed to be trying to convey how sorry he was with his eyes alone.

Keith wrenched himself out of Lance’s grasp with difficulty, backing towards the door with what felt like his heart in his throat. Ridiculously enough, he felt like he might cry.

“Um,” he said to the now-silent room, cursing the way his voice seemed to shake. “I have to go, um…”

“I’ll come with you!” Lance offered brightly, and Keith shook his head hard, stumbling backward a few more steps and keeping out of Lance’s grasp. Lance looked hurt.

Finally, before anyone could say anything else, Keith turned and strode from the room, breaking into a run once he was far enough away for anyone to hear him running. He ended up going to his room, predictable but safe, considering its locking mechanism, and he barricaded himself in there. He immediately took to pacing, a weird, creeping sense of panic moving through him.

Lance knew. Lance knew that he loved him, because _Hunk_ had told him. A flare of anger towards Hunk made itself suddenly known, quickly submerged by even more panic and freaking out.

“God _dammit_!” Keith yelled, and he punched the door, which hurt just as much as it was satisfying. For the next few days, Lance was in love with him. He was unbearably clingy and stupidly infatuated. And when he came out of this — God, Keith didn’t know if he could face him. He _knew_ about Keith’s feeling for him. 

Keith quickly realized that pacing wasn’t working. Deciding he needed a different way to comfort himself, he went with a classic: curling into a ball on his bed. He changed out of his paladin armor first, of course, pulling on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt instead, and then he crawled under his sheets and tucked his knees against his chest and wished for death.

He didn’t know how long he laid there. Not enough time to die, apparently. His wallowing was interrupted by a knock on the door, and Keith said nothing, squeezing his knees even tighter to his chest.

“C’mon, Keith, please let me in.” It was Hunk.

Keith debated remaining silent, but he figured Hunk could break in if he really wanted to. So he rolled out of bed with a groan and stumbled to the door, his glare permanent on his face.

The door slid open, revealing Hunk in all his guilt-infused glory, wringing his hands in front of himself anxiously.

“What,” Keith said flatly.

“Keith — I’m sorry!” Hunk immediately gushed. “I didn’t mean to tell him, he’s just _Lance_! He worked it out of me, I never would’ve told him on purpose I _swear_!”

Keith felt that same feeling of anxiety and helplessness easing its way through his body, though he finally let go of his anger towards Hunk. He’d known from the very beginning that Hunk wouldn’t have set out to hurt him intentionally, he’d just needed to direct his anger somewhere.

With a sigh, Keith felt himself deflate, his shoulders caving in on each other. “How long has he known?”

Hunk’s anxious and guilty look redoubled its efforts, which led Keith to believe that it had happened recently. He managed to convince himself that this was a good thing. Better he’d only known for a short while, right? Otherwise he would’ve known, with every glare, insult, and roll of Keith’s eyes, that he was lying. That all his actions belied his true feelings, the way his heart seemed to skip a beat all too often when he was with Lance. The way he complained every time Lance challenged him, but ended up competing with him anyway. The way he accidentally stared at Lance way too often, and whenever he was caught, looked away as casually as he could, as if he hadn’t been blatantly staring at him.

“He’s known for about… two months,” Hunk said weakly, and Keith felt himself forget how to breathe. The blood drained out of his face and his knees turned to jelly. 

Oh God…

Keith took a deep, shaky breath, and tried to usher Hunk out of his room. “I just want to be alone now…” he was saying, trying to get Hunk to comply, but Hunk stood his ground, looking guilty.

“That’s the thing,” he said warily. “Lance is — well, he’s going crazy without you. He’s all depressed and lonely and mopey, I really think he needs to be with you.”

“But —”

“At least come to dinner,” Hunk begged. “At least when he was with you he was quiet. Now, he’s ranting off all our ears about how cute you are and how much he wants to touch you —”

“OKAY,” Keith shouted, flushing bright red and shoving his way past Hunk. “Just — shut up!”

The second Keith stepped into the dining room Lance’s face lit up. He’d been slumped over on the table, ignoring Pidge as she’d talked lowly to him, and now he was jumping out of his seat and striding determinedly towards Keith.

Before Keith could protest, Lance’s hands were in his hair and his face was coming down and —

Keith turned his head at the last second with a shout and Lance’s lips landed on his cheek. He made desperate eye contact with Hunk who, still looking incredibly guilty, stepped forward and pulled Lance off Keith.

“Lance,” he reprimanded. “We don’t kiss people without asking.”

Lance looked horrified. “I — I know that, shit. I’m sorry, Keith,” he said, looking at him desperately. “I meant to ask —”

“It’s fine,” Keith said gruffly, cutting him off. “Let’s just eat.”

Everyone gathered around the dining table after that. Lance pulled his chair as close to Keith’s as he could get it, and then he wrapped his leg around Keith’s while they ate. When Lance was finished eating, he dropped his hand onto Keith’s thigh and Keith left it there, though only so he wouldn’t have to draw attention to it in the first place. Still, swallowing his dinner became much more difficult after that.

Afterwards, everyone started dispersing in their usual fashion, apparently having forgotten his and Lance’s predicament with Lance’s momentary lapse in bothering anyone (but Keith). Pidge said something about this new tech she was experimenting with as she left the room, and Hunk hurried after her with an excited expression. Shiro, sighing, called after them, “I guess I’ll just get your plates, then.”

Allura stood up to help, as did Coran, and the three of them disappeared into the kitchen together.

At this point, Lance usually did his best to round up the team and get them all to hang out together in the lounge. He claimed it was an integral part of their day, a time when they could all unwind and do separate tasks if they wanted, as long as they were in each other’s presence. He called it ‘family time’.

Getting everyone together sometimes took some work, Lance having to drag Pidge away from her inventions, convince Allura the battle strategies could wait until morning, persuade Keith to at _least_ read in their company instead of alone in his room, but Lance could usually do it. Especially now that it’d been going on for a while now. He could just stride into a room, give them a look, and they’d be sighing and getting to their feet, ‘cause there was no point arguing any longer.

Now, though, Lance made no intention of getting up and gathering everyone for family time. He seemed content to sit and stare at Keith.

“All right,” Keith said, blowing air out through his nose and getting to his feet. Lance followed. “I’m gonna go to bed now,” he said. Lance nodded. Keith cleared his throat. “And you can go to your bed, and we’ll see each other in the morning. Okay?” Lance’s expression dropped, though he didn’t argue. 

Keith dropped Lance off at his room, arms crossed as Lance entered the code. The doors slid open and he turned around to look at Keith.

“Goodnight,” Keith said preemptively, and Lance took a huge breath and nodded.

“Right,” he said. “‘M totally okay with going to sleep alone. Without you. Me in bed without you, totally cool.”

“Yep.”

Lance groaned, throwing himself forward and leaning what felt like all of his weight onto Keith, who grunted and stumbled backward before managing to stay upright.

“Lance!” Keith reprimanded, though Lance ignored him, his face pressed into Keith’s shoulder and his hand rubbing up and down Keith’s back.

“I just think we should sleep together,” Lance said into Keith’s shoulder. “I mean, we love each other, right? Let’s sleep together.”

“Please stop saying that,” Keith squeaked, and Lance pulled away from him. He was smirking, which made him look a thousand times more normal than that dopey, love-struck expression he’d been wearing all day instead.

“We can do it with our clothes on,” Lance said suggestively, completely aware of the innuendo in his words, and Keith just shook his head with exasperation.

“Not _that_ ,” he groaned, before reconsidering, and, “Well, yeah, stop saying that that, but more the other thing.”

Lance frowned. “Why can’t I talk about you loving me? It makes me happy,” he said, and he sidled back up to Keith, wrapping both arms around his waist and pressing their foreheads together. Keith clenched his eyes shut, letting out a shaky breath. _This isn’t real,_ he reminded himself. _This isn’t real this isn’t real this isn’t real._

“Just don’t,” Keith choked out, all too aware that when Lance came to — when he was back to normal — he would remember all of this. Would remember everything he’d said to Keith, every way Keith had reacted. God, whatever conversation they had at the end of this was going to be horrendous.

Keith pushed Lance off him, said goodnight for the third time, and spun around towards his own room. He disappeared inside it in a flash, aware that Lance was still in the hallway and looking at him mournfully, and groaned loud and long to his empty room. Maybe tomorrow he could ask Coran to just knock Lance out, keep him sedated until all the Love Bug venom made its way through his system. That would be a whole lot easier for both of them, he imagined.

He crawled into his bed, pulling his sheets up to his ears, and closed his eyes. Every time he started to drift off, he was jerked back into wakefulness at the hands of a cringy memory. It was a long time before he fell asleep.

And not a long time before he was awakened.

A distant but determined knocking was what pulled him out of his slumber, getting louder as he shook off the last dregs of sleep and realized that someone was knocking at his door. For a moment, he forgot all about the wretched day he’d had, the memories yet to have flooded his just awoken mind, and he stumbled to the door, letting it slide open.

The second it revealed Lance on the other side, he remembered everything.

“Lance?” he croaked, reaching up to rub a tired eye. “What are you doing here? What time is it?”

“I couldn’t sleep because I love you,” Lance said, and a jolt went through Keith’s system, making him feel entirely awake all at once again.

“Lance! That’s — that’s not a valid reason,” Keith stuttered, but Lance was already shoving his way into Keith’s room, a blanket trailing behind him. He was only wearing his underwear. Keith was dying.

“Yes it is,” Lance said stubbornly. “How am I supposed to sleep when I can’t stop thinking about you?” Keith snorted. _You tell me._

“You have to go back to your room,” Keith said, the door still open behind him, but Lance wholeheartedly ignored him. He spread his blanket on the floor beside Keith’s bed.

“I’ll sleep on the floor if I have to,” Lance insisted, curling up on his sad blanket and immediately starting to shiver. 

Keith pinched the bridge of his nose, already knowing what he was going to end up doing, already knowing that he was _weak_ and cursing the fact that all of this shit had to happen to _him_ in the first place. “Just — get in the bed,” he sighed, and Lance let out a _whoop_! and hopped up, immediately clambering under Keith’s covers, still askew from his rude awakening. “But put on a shirt!” Keith insisted, and he grabbed one out of his dresser and chucked it at Lance, who pulled it on obligingly.

“Anything for you, Mr. Grumpy Pants,” Lance said under his breath, but Keith ignored him. He stomped back to his bed, ushered Lance further to the other side, and climbed in himself.

“Stay over there,” Keith instructed. “No cuddling.”

“What about hand holding?”

“No. No touching of any kind. Got it?”

There was a long silence, and then Lance whispered under his breath, “God it.”

Keith paused. “Did you just say… God it?”

“No.”

“You did!”

“ _Nooo_ , I said Got itch.” He said this really quickly, as if it might slip past Keith if he said it fast enough.

“Now you said _itch_ ,” Keith snapped.

Lance sighed loudly. “I can’t help it if Sleep Lance cuddles you, all right?!” he burst out. And then, with total certainty, “We’re in _love_ , Keith. We can’t help it if our sleeping bodies reach for each other.”

“We’re not in love!” Keith burst out, but he whispered it, hating that he even had to talk about this with Lance. 

Lance, instead of looking hurt like Keith had expected him to, just rolled his eyes and looked entirely unconvinced. “You don’t need to deny it,” Lance said easily, conversationally. He scooted closer to Keith and wrapped a leg around his waist, ignoring Keith’s irritated huff. “Now that the secret’s out, now that we both know we love each other, we can just _be._ ”

“ _You_ can just be,” Keith muttered, but he wasn’t sure Lance heard him. He shoved Lance off of him then, pushing him all the way to the other side of the bed, and kept him there with a glare.

“Stay,” he instructed.

“Yes, sir,” Lance said with an infuriating smirk, and Keith ignored the heat creeping up his neck as he turned away from Lance, hunching in on himself. The sooner he slept, the sooner this would be over…

And the sooner he would wake up. Lance had been right about one thing, at least: he really couldn’t control his sleeping body. He was sprawled entirely across Keith, his face resting on his chest and a leg hooked around Keith’s hips. Most alarming was the fact that his entire arm was shoved up underneath Keith’s shirt, his hand splayed against Keith’s ribs.

Keith had fantasized about waking up with Lance on about a million different occasions. He tried not to, of course, the pain from knowing it would never happen a steady constant in the back of his mind, but sometimes he couldn’t help but let his mind wander. Couldn’t help but lay there, imagining what it would be like to wake up with Lance, encased in his arms and touching his bare skin and waking him up with gentle kisses.

Now, he wanted nothing more than to wake up alone. This entire situation was just a horrible, glaring reminder that none of this was real and would never _be_ real. His whole being was filled with dread. Both for the next few days and for when Lance came-to.

Careful not to wake Lance — no, really, _really_ careful — Keith slid out from under him, dislodging Lance’s arm from under his shirt and maneuvering the rest of his body to where it was supposed to be. Then he climbed out of his bed, taking one last careful look at Lance to make sure he was still soundly asleep, and crossed to the bathroom.

He put the shower on as hot as it could get, determined to burn the feeling of Lance’s body draped over his out of his mind. He scrubbed hard at his skin with his assortment of soaps. And yes, he really did mean _assortment_. Every once in a while Lance would surprise him with a different kind of body wash or face wash or shampoo from a space market, claiming he had to, that Keith would run out and stop bathing entirely if he didn’t.

Lance was wrong, obviously. The castle had a store of some plain soaps and shampoos, though they didn’t smell like much and left your skin feeling dry and stretched. But still, this was just another one of Lance’s ways of making fun of him.

Keith was mostly done with his shower, just standing there and daydreaming as his skin turned pink under the hot water, when the unmistakable sound of the door opening reached him through the spray of his shower. He froze, straining his ears and glaring at the tiled wall opposite him as he tried to decipher whether he’d imagined it or not.

“Mind if I join you?” Lance’s voice rang out in the bathroom, and Keith flinched so hard he almost slipped and cracked his head open on the tub. He could see Lance’s outline through the shower curtain.

“ _Lance_!” Keith hissed. He didn’t know what to do with himself. His knees started to bend, begging him to drop into a fighting stance, even though logically, he knew there wasn’t an enemy to fight.

“Yes?”

“No!” Keith said. “Get out!”

He could hear the pout in Lance’s voice. “But showering together!” he whined. “How much more romantic can you get?”

“Just — hand me my towel,” Keith snapped, jerking the shower handle into the ‘off’ position and standing there in the steam, dripping wet. A second later, the curtain swished open, Lance holding a towel out to Keith.

Blushing bright red, Keith yanked the towel out of Lance’s hands and had it wrapped around his waist in a few quick snaps, though Lance certainly let his gaze wander. Keith stepped out of the shower and tried to shove past Lance, though he stomped too hard and his bare feet slipped on the tiled floor, made almost slimy with the amount of condensation on it.

Luckily, or perhaps not so luckily, Lance caught him, sweeping him up against his body before he could smack his head on the edge of the tub. Keith’s chest rose and fell quickly with a few harsh gasps, and Lance grinned down at him.

“Look at you,” he said flirtily. “You fell _right into my arms_.”

Keith groaned, shoving himself to his feet and away from Lance. He made his way back to his room and told Lance to turn around while he got dressed, though he wasn’t entirely sure Lance didn’t peek. 

At breakfast, everyone seemed to simultaneously remember Lance’s condition, shooting Keith pitying looks as they traipsed into the kitchen, one of them already looking exhausted and the other perfectly well rested.

It didn’t help that Lance’s favorite topic of conversation tended to be how much Keith loved him. He suffered through it at breakfast, embarrassment swirling thick in his gut as everyone tried to pretend like it was nothing for Keith to be embarrassed about.

“I’m just saying,” Lance was saying loftily, spooning goo into his mouth with one hand as his other entrapped Keith’s, intertwining their fingers and leaving them rested on the table between them. Keith tilted his head back, silently begging for the ceiling to come down and crush him. “We should make this a little more official, what while I’ve still got this Love Bug courage running through my veins.”

It was the first time they’d heard Lance refer to the Love Bug. He clearly knew he’d been bitten by it, then, but he didn’t seem to understand what that meant.

Everyone ignored him. Keith determinedly glared towards the other side of the room, staring between Pidge and Shiro’s heads and avoiding their worry-filled gazes.

“I mean, we’ve waited long enough, haven’t we?” Lance said, squeezing Keith’s hand way too familiarly. He then picked it up and pressed his lips against Keith’s knuckles, making Keith close his eyes and take a deep breath in an attempt to calm down. Lance continued on, unbothered by the one-sided conversation. “Like, you’ve loved me for how long? A few months or something, right?”

Keith felt his neck grow hot. Hunk shifted uncomfortably across from him, and Keith’s heated gaze momentarily flickered to him. 

“And I’ve been crushing on you for God knows how long,” Lance laughed, and Keith rolled his eyes. _Lie_. “So this Love Bug is kind of just a good thing. Now our feelings are out in the open and we can finally act on them.”

With difficulty, Keith wrenched his hand away from Lance’s, grinding his teeth and accidentally making eye contact with Shiro in the process. He looked sympathetic.

“I'm gonna go train,” Keith said gruffly, pushing his half-finished bowl of goo aside.

“I’ll come with you!” Lance said jovially, jumping to his feet. Glowering, Keith got to his feet as well.

This was going to be a long couple of days.

—

“I’m just saying,” Lance said, in that high, sigh-y voice he’d been using whenever he tried to convince Keith to do something he knew he wouldn’t do. The past few days had been hell, full of involuntary cuddling and constant embarrassment and Pidge conducting research on the planet’s Love Bugs simply because she felt like she had to do _something_.

They were laying in Keith’s bed, because it was late, and Keith was tired, and Lance refused to sleep alone. He was splayed out across Keith’s chest right then, his hands folded underneath his chin, and he appeared totally fine that Keith’s gaze was glued to the other side of the room, refusing to look at the man insistent on cuddling him.

“What?” Keith finally said, when Lance didn’t continue, obviously waiting to be prompted. 

“Lovers usually kiss,” he said, shrugging, and Keith scoffed. This was Lance’s latest obsession. He kept trying to come up with ways to get Keith to kiss him.

“We’re not lovers,” Keith said sternly, and Lance raised his body a little, dragging one of his hands down Keith’s chest, lower over his stomach.

“Not yet, we aren’t…”

Keith grabbed his wrist and stopped the progression, glaring at Lance all the while. He pulled his arm back up to his chest, letting Lance fold it under himself once more.

“Kiss me,” he said, staring straight at Keith. “Kiss me, Keith. C’mon, I know you want to.” Keith ignored him, looking dutifully at the ceiling. “Kiss me kiss me _kissmekissmekissmekis_ —”

“Jesus Christ!” Keith burst out, slapping a hand over Lance’s mouth. “If I kiss you, will you finally shut the fuck up?”

Lance nodded eagerly, his eyes growing wide with excitement.

Keith let go of Lance’s face, swiftly grabbing his hand and pulling it towards his mouth, and pressed a kiss against his knuckles. Lance pouted.

“That’s not what I want and you know it.”

“No, but it’s what you go —”

Lance surged up, climbing up and looming over him, his face centimeters from Keith’s own. Keith could feel his breath across his lips. His heart started beating an erratic rhythm in his chest, his hands floating somewhere close to Lance’s sides, warring with his mind as they longed to both push Lance away and pull him in closer.

“Tell me no, Keith,” Lance whispered, his words a hot whoosh of air against Keith’s lips. “Tell me you don’t want this. Lie.”

Keith couldn’t. He could feel his hands trembling, his fingers longing to grab Lance and cling to him. His breaths were coming faster now and he was sure Lance could feel them. He wanted this. _God_ , he wanted this.

“Good,” Lance whispered, and then his lips were against Keith’s, hot and smooth and moving against his, moving slow but purposefully, undoing him all too easily. Keith’s hands were buried in Lance’s shirt, pulling him closer, closer, closer, as his mouth opened up underneath Lance’s, one of Lance’s hands secured in his hair.

Finally, Lance drew away, his lips glistening and his eyes hazy, though a smirk pulled slowly across his face. 

“Mmm,” Lance hummed, satisfied. He patted Keith’s cheek twice. “Goodnight, babe.”

Keith’s face flushed red and he turned hastily onto his side, his eyes wide and staring in horror across the dark room. God, what he’d just done… Totally taken advantage of Lance in his vulnerable state… He hadn’t _meant_ to, but Lance was just so enticing, surely Keith could make him understand when he went back to normal…

Lance pressed up against his back and wrapped an arm around Keith’s waist. The no cuddling rule had been thrown out, due to Lance’s complete disregard of it. Keith stiffened, though he couldn’t help from relaxing as Lance’s fingers drew patterns against his skin as he drifted off.

It was a long time before Keith fell asleep.

After breakfast, Pidge drew him aside, much to Lance’s disapproval, given the baleful looks.

“I need to tell you something,” she said seriously.

Keith crossed his arms. “What?”

“Allura was wrong about the Love Bug.” Immediately, panic swirled in his gut. He imagined Lance being stuck like this for weeks, not days. He imagined the effects being permanent, and a horrified shiver raced up his spine. Lance, without his free will, forced to love Keith for the rest of his life…

“Stop panicking,” Pidge said, obviously seeing the pattern his thoughts were racing towards. “What I mean it, that bug bite didn’t make Lance fall in love with you.”

“You sure?” Keith scoffed, taking a look across the room to where Lance was still seated at the table, slightly restrained by Hunk. He noticed Keith looked at him and waved frantically, blowing him a kiss with a saucy wink. Keith looked away. 

“I’m serious,” Pidge insisted. “That bug was a different strain of Love Bug. All it does is lower the victim’s inhibitions towards the object of their affections.”

Keith’s thoughts stuttered to a stop. It was blissfully quiet inside his own head. “Which means…?” he croaked, the conclusion hovering right before him, if he only had the guts to reach out and grab it.

“Lance really _does_ love you. He just can’t control himself right now.”

“Oh my God,” Keith breathed. He didn’t know what to think. His thoughts were swirling so quickly through his head that he could barely comprehend them. Lance… actually loved him? He actually felt this way for Keith, wasn’t just spurned on by the bite of some stupid insect?

He looked back to Lance, who practically _beamed_ when he had Keith’s attention again, immediately making kissy faces at him. Keith looked back to Pidge, his cheeks growing pink.

“Pidge… you’re sure about this?”

“Keith, I want you to go ahead and think about when I’ve ever been wrong.”

Keith nodded. “Good point.”

So then… Lance actually had feelings for him. Lance really felt this way, really wanted to cuddle with Keith and kiss him silly and join him in the shower. That was all… that was all _real_. He swallowed thickly.

Now, he just had to wait for this venom to leave Lance’s system. Then he’d go back to normal, stop being so crazy in love, and start being… normally in love?

That night, when Lance tugged him into his arms, starting what usually ended up being a struggle between the two of them until Keith finally gave in, Keith didn’t fight him. Instead, he turned in his embrace and tucked his head under Lance’s chin. Lance, delighted, immediately started threading his fingers through his hair.

When he awoke, it was to find that Lance had once again made a pillow of his body. He was all wrapped around Keith, their legs intertwined and their breaths perfectly in sync. Keith couldn’t help reaching up, brushing the longer strands of Lance’s hair out of his eyes. It was incredibly soft, and it fell right back into his face after Keith moved it.

Lance made a small sound in his throat after that, and his eyebrows drew together as his lips pulled into a frown, his face contorting into something sleepy and confused.

“Mmm… what?” he muttered, his voice deep with disuse. Keith said nothing, just staring down at him, and Lance’s eyes fluttered open. They locked gazes, and Keith smiled at him. Lance smiled back for a beat, two, and then that confused look came over him again. And then he was flinging himself off Keith, off the bed, and crashing to the floor with a painful thud.

“Lance!” Keith burst out. “Shit, are you all right?”

“I’m — what… I’m — fuck!” Lance said, jumping to his feet and looking around wildly. He thrust a hand through his hair, mussing it up even worse, and finally looked up to meet Keith’s eyes. Keith was half out of bed, a hand stretched towards Lance and every line of him loud with concern. They were both dressed in boxers and a t-shirt, typical sleep wear and yet more than Keith usually wore.

“Keith, I’m so sorry,” Lance said sincerely, backing away towards the door now. Whatever sticky, sleepy residue had been clinging to Keith’s mind suddenly cleared as he realized what was going on. Lance was _normal_. “I’m sorry for everything I said and did…”

“Lance, wait, it’s not your fault,” Keith said, standing up fully now, the blankets that’d been clinging to him falling to his feet. Lance’s eyes followed them, and then they traced Keith’s body, back up to his face. “And the Love Bug wasn’t —”

“Right! The Love Bug,” Lance laughed, looking relieved, though still stressed. “That was — that was wild, but I couldn’t control myself, you know? That bug makes you fall in love with whoever you see first, right?” He laughed uneasily.

Keith’s mouth pulled into a frown. _Why are you lying to me?_ He thought. But then he saw how uncomfortable Lance obviously was, the way he was edging closer and closer towards the door. He remembered that stupid kiss they’d shared and all the embarrassing conversations Lance had initiated, conversations about Keith’s blatant and obvious crush on him. Mortification suddenly weighed down on Keith as he realized that maybe, just this once, Pidge was _wrong_. And now he had to deal with Lance, the _real_ Lance, who’d put him through all this and fucking knew that Keith was in love with him.

Keith flushed. 

“Yeah,” Keith said, clearing his throat when it came out scratchy. “Yeah, you couldn’t control any of it.”

“Right. And I’m so, _so_ sorry for bringing up that you —”

“It’s okay!” Keith said hastily, red-faced, and he stepped forward and ushered Lance towards the door, shoving him out once it slid open. “We’ll just never talk about this again and it’ll be fine. Goodbye!”

Once Lance was gone, shoved unceremoniously into the hallway, he curled his arms around himself and cursed himself for the feeling of crushing panic descending upon him. This was what he’d expected originally, right? Just because Pidge had gotten his hopes up… No, it didn’t matter. He’d get through this. He’d just have to avoid Lance for the next foreseeable future. Maybe he could rip his eyes out, and then he’d never have to look at Lance again. Plus, everyone would be so busy worrying over the loss of his eyes, there’d be no time to pay attention to his stupid feelings…

With a groan, he banged his head against the door, before hastily pulling on his jeans and turning to make his way towards wherever Pidge was. The door slid open, revealing Lance.

Keith froze.

“Um. What are you doing?” he asked. He wondered if Lance had heard him bang his head on the door. 

Lance’s expression suddenly cleared, and he shook his head like he was shaking off a thought. “I think it’s still wearing off,” he said slowly. “I… It was hard to leave…”

“Right,” Keith said. He remembered how it’d started, how Lance had been able to control himself for a few minutes, coming to again and again as he kept accidentally gravitating towards Keith. “Come on,” Keith said gruffly, grabbing Lance by the elbow and marching him towards his own bedroom. The door slid open, and Keith pushed Lance — more gently this time — into the room. “Think you’re sane enough to handle yourself from here,” he said, and Lance gaped at him for a moment, before nodding hastily, his cheeks turning pink.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” he said. And then, “Thanks.”

Keith just jerked his head, growing increasingly more uncomfortable, and spun on his heel towards the Kitchen. Lance didn’t follow, thank God, and he found Pidge seated at the table. 

“Pidge,” he said, ignoring everyone else who was there. “Can I talk to you? In private,” he added, as everyone’s gazes flickered between them curiously.

Pidge made a groan of annoyance, but she followed Keith out of the room after grabbing her bowl of goo. She continued to eat it as Keith led her out into the hallway, mercifully empty.

“What?” Pidge said, around a mouthful of goo.

“You were wrong,” Keith said quietly. He looked away from Pidge, examining the wall, the ceiling, the floor. It was when he was looking at his own fingernails that Pidge finally spoke up.

“Wait, what?” she said.

“About the bug,” Keith continued. “It’s — it’s not the strain you thought it was. You were wrong.”

Pidge scoffed. Loudly. “I was not wrong,” she said, trying to cross her arms before remembering she was holding a bowl of goo. She took a bite of it, instead.

“You were!” Keith insisted. “Lance was…” he thought back, to Lance’s obvious panic, his unease, the way he’d flung himself out of the bed. “He doesn’t feel that way about me.”

“Wrong,” Pidge said decisively. And then she jabbed her spoon at him. A fleck of goo flung off and landed on his shirt. “He’s lying.”

“What?”

“He’s lying!” Pidge said excitedly. “He’s trying to hide his feelings, for whatever reason. Which, you know, is bullshit, considering he already knows you love him.”

“Please shut up,” Keith moaned lowly, hating it every time those words left anyone’s mouth. He’d never even said it himself. They were all just _assuming_. Not… that they were wrong.

“I’m telling you, Keith, he’s _lying_ —”

Just then, Lance turned the corner, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jacket and looking more like himself than he had in days, considering the fact that he wasn’t attached to Keith’s side. Immediately, Pidge shut up, the both of them stiffening in place.

“Whatcha talkin’ about?” Lance asked, looking between them two.

“Um,” Keith said, much too loudly, and both Pidge and Lance jerked their heads to look at him. His lips were pressed tightly together though, and he was panicking. “Um. Nothing.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “I’m pretty sure I heard you say someone was lying. Who?”

Keith looked to Pidge, desperate. Her eyes widened and she shrugged. Keith just glared at her even more ferociously. 

“We didn’t say lying,” Pidge answer. “We said. Um. Crying.”

Lance frowned, though he didn’t argue. “Who’s crying?”

“Hunk,” Keith said knowingly, nodding his head now. “Yeah, Hunk’s crying.”

“What?! Is he okay?” Lance immediately started looking around, and he took a step towards the kitchen, like he was about to burst in there and comfort Hunk. Pidge reached out and snatched his arm, lightning fast.

“He’s done crying now, so it’s okay,” she assured.

“Oh. Well —”

“I just wanted to ask you a few questions?” Pidge said. “You know, to make sure the venom’s really out of your system.”

“Does it have to —”

“The princess told me to.”

Lance slumped in on himself. “Fine. Ask away.”

Pidge cleared her throat. She pulled out her pocket computer and set a keyboard hologram directly in the air before her.

“Do you have any memory lapses of your time under the Love Bug’s effect?” she asked, her voice sounding perfectly professional.

“No,” Lance said, his cheeks quickly belying his embarrassment. Keith didn’t miss the way his eyes flicked towards him briefly.

“And during the ordeal, did you feel any pain or discomfort?”

“No.”

“When the bug first bit you, what did it feel like?”

Lance chewed on his cheek. “Well, it felt almost… cold?” he said, head tilted in thought. “Yeah. It was like an ice cube was touching my neck. But then that went away when I saw Keith. You know, the love at first sight thing.”

“Right, right,” Pidge said, sounding distracted, but Keith could see the corner of her lip pulled up. “And when it bit you, it definitely didn’t feel burning hot? Or itchy?”

Lance shook his head. “No,” he said. “Definitely ice-cube.”

“Okay,” Pidge said, and she slide the keyboard away, the hologram disintegrating in thin air. “Well then. I was right.”

“What?” Lance said.

“The Love Bug that produces results of love at first sight is commonly associated with itching and burning upon the contact point. But you felt cold.”

“Well, yeah,” Lance said warily. “But you know, everyone’s different, right? And you said commonly. That doesn’t mean always.”

“Right. Except there’s other strains of Love Bugs, ones that cause the victim to feel cold.”  
 

“Well there you have it,” Lance said. “It was just another strain.”

“Exactly. And this strain lowers inhibitions towards the object of those affected’s attraction.”

Lance paused for a moment, obviously trying to process Pidge’s words. And then his eyes widened, sliding towards Keith, horrified.

“Um,” he said loudly.

“I’ll leave you two be,” said Pidge, and she turned around, waving at them with her spoon as she walked away.

Neither Keith nor Lance were looking at each other. Lance was fidgeting something horrible and Keith was standing so stiffly his joints ached. Carefully, he looked at Lance out of the corner of his eye, only to find Lance already looking at him. They both jerked and looked away.

Finally, Keith mustered up the courage, through lots sweating, to say, “Why didn’t you tell me?” He cleared his throat, uncomfortable. “I mean, after you already knew how I… Um. Feel.” He still wasn’t looking at Lance, his eyes locked onto some distant point down the hall, wishing he could stop feeling so flushed and sweaty all the time.

Lance sighed, a big whoosh of breath so loud that it almost made Keith jump. He chanced a glance at Lance, who was already staring at him steadily. And then he groaned. “Aghh, I just… I kind of thought it was a fluke? Your feelings, I mean,” he hastily added. “Like… I mean,” he laughed, “ _look_ at you! You could have anybody you want. I thought I was just like, a passing fancy.”

Keith’s eyes had widened. He’d never… Was Lance _serious_? Like, had he ever looked in the mirror before? 

“It’s not,” Keith managed, which — smooth. “Um. A passing fancy. It’s not.” He looked away again, before forcing himself to drag his gaze back, because this might be _it_. “I’ve felt this way for…” _Months_ , his brain said. _Almost a year._ “… a long time.”

Slowly, a grin was growing across Lance’s face. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Keith said. And then words were spilling out of his mouth without permission. “Like, at first I tried to ignore it? And I was hoping it would go away, I don’t know, but then people kept _finding out_ , and that was embarrassing, and then apparently _you_ found out, which makes me want to die —”

Lance laughed loudly, shaking his head as he stumbled a step closer. He grabbed Keith’s hand, almost absent-mindedly, and his thumb rubbed over Keith’s knuckles, again and again.

“Don’t be embarrassed,” he said, his smile now small and private. His eyes were alight with happiness. “Ever since I found out, I was like, watching for it. And you know, I didn’t believe Hunk at first, but then after I started really paying attention —”

Keith groaned in embarrassment, leaning forward and letting his head land on Lance’s shoulder, who laughed again. “No! Listen!” he said, pushing Keith lightly away. “After I started to believe him, I started trying to build up the courage to like, tell you. Obviously, that was taking a while, so. You know. Thank God for stupid bugs.”

“Jesus,” Keith huffed. “I thought I was going to die of embarrassment the last few days. You’re horrible.”

“You love me,” Lance said, in his typical come-back manner, but then his entire face lit up and he laughed, realizing this was actually true. 

“Shut up.”

“You love me. You want to _kiss_ me!”

“Not anymore, I don’t,” Keith said, pulling away and striding towards the kitchen.

“Is that smoke I smell?” Lance said idly, and Keith ignored him. “‘Cause I think your pants are burning, babe.”

Keith flushed. “Don’t call me that.”

“What? Don’t like it?” Lance said, sounding disappointed, but then he caught a look at Keith’s face. “Oh my God, you love it.”

“I’m going to stab you.”

“Kinky,” Lance said, and Keith smacked him in the stomach.

“If you stop saying things that embarrass me I _might_ kiss you later,” Keith said sternly, looking over at Lance as he did. They had paused in the doorway to the kitchen, their friends seated across the room at the table.

“Sounds promising,” Lance grinned. “I remember last time, you did this kind of high pitched sigh —”

Keith’s eyes widened. “I’m never kissing you again,” he said, horrified, and Lance just laughed, immediately wrapping an arm around his waist and leading them towards the dining table.

“Now that, my dear friend, is a _lie_.”

And he was right. Keith ended up kissing him only a short amount of time after breakfast, though only because Lance had taken to begging again. It wasn’t Keith’s fault he’d found a good way at shutting him up.


End file.
